IT
is arguably the biggest giant-killing act in sporting history – but
Japan's Rugby's World Cup slaying of mighty South Africa was more
than that. It was the ultimate game-changer, a result that introduced
the public to global sport's Brand of the Rising Sons.
While
football remains the most popular ball game on the planet, the
emergence of Japan as a major rugby union force signals a huge
breakthrough for the oval-ball code.
Yes, the Beautiful Game is being threatened by Beauty and the East.
Forget
the 45-10 hammering the Oriental upstarts took from Scotland in
Gloucester on Wednesday. The bigger, fresher Tartan troops were
always favourites against a team weary from their history-making
exertions four days earlier.
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| Full of Eastern Promisee: Japan's Rugby World Cup heroes celebrate victory against South Africa |
In
the words of Japan coach Eddie Jones, the man who steered Australia
to the 2003 World Cup Final, “With
an Asian team beating a top-tier country, that really makes it a
global sport.”
Football
remains No.1 with the public thanks largely to a complex coaching net
that has elevated the top 50 or so nations to a level where their
international teams are all capable of beating each other. The scene
is changing, however, amid the chaos of Sepp Blatter's corrupt crew
and FIFA's continuing refusal to adopt new technology that rugby,
tennis and cricket have been utilising for a decade.
Rugby
has long held the moral high ground when it comes to respect for
officialdom and use of technology to ensure that try-scoring and
disciplinary decisions are always correct. Professional leagues
thrive in all the major rugby nations, with sponsors queuing up and
the lure of big money attracting the world's best players. And
crowds at top rugby Premiership games in England attract crowds of
Manchester United and Arsenal proportions.
Until
last weekend, the main thing holding a genuine popularity challenge
to football back was the absence of a meaningful rugby presence
beyond the traditional hotbeds of the British Isles, France,
Australasia, South Africa, Argentina and, to a lesser degree,
Italy.
The
qualification process for RWC 2015 involved no fewer than 83 nations,
the majority of them rugby's equivalent to European football's
newest whipping boys, Gibraltar.
Gibraltar
beating England in the World Cup finals? Pure fantasy, of course. Yet
that is what Japan effectively achieved by beating the Boks with a
bit-part team made up of physical midgets and journeymen pros from
overseas who qualify for Empire status on residential grounds.
In
fairness, Japan's rugby minnows weren't exactly devoid of
professional assistance. The game has long been hugely popular in the
Land of the Rising Sun, and a coaching team led by former Wallabies
chief Jones and ex-England captain Steve Borthwick knew exactly what
was required to make the team genuinely competitive.
Way
back at RWC 1991, I remember Japan's charismatic manager Shiggy Kono
lamenting after a World Cup defeat at Murrayfield at the physical
limitations of his players. “Our backs are as good and as quick as
any other nation,'' said the man who claimed to be his country's only
failed kamikaze pilot. “The problem is finding Japanese players
who are physically as big and tall as those in the leading rugby
nations.''
London-educated
Kono, who died in 2007, reckoned he was such a bad pilot that his
wartime kamikaze unit bosses refused to send him on a mission. A
mission where survival would have been as likely as the Japanese
rugby team beating the 1995 and 2007 world champions.
Even
with the absorption of foreign-born forwards, Japan's tallest player
at the World Cup is a mere 6ft 4in – that's four or five inches
shorter than the average Bok, Kiwi or English second-row giant.
Japan
can still qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time despite
the defeat by Scotland - but even if they miss out, no-one can take
from them the fact they achieved the unachievable.
The
little big men have also lifted the game of rugby into a new era of
global competition.
PS
to England as they prepare for Saturday's Twickenham showdown with
2011 semi-finalists Wales. Beware of wounded Dragons...they are
likely to catch fire and reduce you to cinders.
St
George is still recovering from the burns inflicted by Wales in the
2013 Six Nations championship. In case anyone has forgotten, the
written-off Taffs thrashed England by a record 30-3 margin and went
on to lift the European crown for the fourth time in eight years.
Saturday's
confrontation has a familiar look about it. England start hot
favourites with Wales decimated by injuries to key playmakers Lee
Halfpenny, Rhys Webb and long-term casualty Jonathan Davies.
The
game will be a doddle for Stuart Lancaster's sweet chariot, predict
the fans in the white shirts and rose-coloured spectacles.
Bu
will it – particularly following the loss of England's midfield
try machine Jonathan Joseph?
Wales,
for all their injuries, feel they can exploit a juggled English back
line which includes relatively untried rugby league convert Sam
Burgess replacing Joseph. With Lancaster also handing George Ford's
No.10 jersey to Owen Farrell, the Welsh will feel they can exploit
what they see as England's soft midfield under-belly.
Have
Farrell, Burgess and St George gut what it takes to slay the
Dragon? Tune in to ITV at 9pm Spanish time on Saturday to find out.
